The first time you open your dishwasher after running it, you may not wish to empty it immediately. So simply turn one cup or glass right side up, right away. Since you never run cups or glasses through the wash cycle right side up, you know it's clean. If by some weird chance something had gone through the wash right side up it would be filled with water.
Foolproof hack for knowing whether the dishes in your dishwasher are clean or dirty. You need never wonder again, even if you don't empty the clean dishes immediately, like you "should"!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Friday LifeHack
I thought, "I should make up my OWN clever name for "lifehacks", the term that came to wide recognition through Gina Trapani's "LifeHack.com" web site, but then I thought of an even more basic LifeHack: don't gratuitously invent terms for things for which there is already a well-known term, you make your information more difficult to understand. You wouldn't, except as a joke, say, "Please pass the NaCl dispenser", because by the time anyone figured it out, the food you had wanted to put salt on would already be cold. ("Salt shaker" or simply "salt", if you didn't get my cleverness, which was my intention to illustrate my point.) So there's your PRE-hack!
Today's LifeHack: Receipts.
These days you run from one place to another, buying stuff as you go along. Groceries, then maybe a latte, then a new router, then maybe lunch. By the time you get home, you've either lost all the receipts, or still have some or all of them in a undifferentiated blob in your pocket (or purse). Either you make a decision that you don't care, and just ditch them, or you have to go through them. After all, you probably don't need your grocery receipt, or the latte, but the router might just not work right and you might need the receipt to return it.
Is there any way to deal with this common yet unavoidable annoying task? I mean, it's just slips of paper, what is there to be done?
Not much, but this "not much" helps me a lot. See, whenever I buy something for which I receive a receipt, I make a judgment on the spot as to whether it's likely that I will ever need that receipt again. If it's the insignificant stuff like the latte or lunch, I figure, no, and I crumple them up into a ball. But if I buy that router, or maybe a shirt that might not fit, I FOLD that one neatly. They key thing is that you only have to think about that receipt that one time, rather than having to re-interpret everything. And the very appearance of something neatly folded seems to imply, "this is a valuable document", so it's easy to tell what means what. A deliberately crumpled piece of paper means "trash".
(Of course, if you're standing by a trash can when you get your latte receipt, just throw it away. But maybe you aren't, and maybe you aren't the kind of person that just throws crap on the ground because you RESPECT society.)
So now when I get home, I don't have to revisit the whole mess, look at them all again, and decide what to do. I just toss all the crumples, and put all the folded ones in a file, or with the item I bought. (If it's clothing, I'll just put it in the bag or even a pocket; if the thing came in a box, I tape the receipt to the top so I don't have to search for it.
Not only does this make handling receipts much easier, but it increases the likelihood that you will be able to come up with a receipt to return something should you ever need to.
Voila...my receipt LifeHack. I hope it helps you.
Today's LifeHack: Receipts.
These days you run from one place to another, buying stuff as you go along. Groceries, then maybe a latte, then a new router, then maybe lunch. By the time you get home, you've either lost all the receipts, or still have some or all of them in a undifferentiated blob in your pocket (or purse). Either you make a decision that you don't care, and just ditch them, or you have to go through them. After all, you probably don't need your grocery receipt, or the latte, but the router might just not work right and you might need the receipt to return it.
Is there any way to deal with this common yet unavoidable annoying task? I mean, it's just slips of paper, what is there to be done?
Not much, but this "not much" helps me a lot. See, whenever I buy something for which I receive a receipt, I make a judgment on the spot as to whether it's likely that I will ever need that receipt again. If it's the insignificant stuff like the latte or lunch, I figure, no, and I crumple them up into a ball. But if I buy that router, or maybe a shirt that might not fit, I FOLD that one neatly. They key thing is that you only have to think about that receipt that one time, rather than having to re-interpret everything. And the very appearance of something neatly folded seems to imply, "this is a valuable document", so it's easy to tell what means what. A deliberately crumpled piece of paper means "trash".
(Of course, if you're standing by a trash can when you get your latte receipt, just throw it away. But maybe you aren't, and maybe you aren't the kind of person that just throws crap on the ground because you RESPECT society.)
So now when I get home, I don't have to revisit the whole mess, look at them all again, and decide what to do. I just toss all the crumples, and put all the folded ones in a file, or with the item I bought. (If it's clothing, I'll just put it in the bag or even a pocket; if the thing came in a box, I tape the receipt to the top so I don't have to search for it.
Not only does this make handling receipts much easier, but it increases the likelihood that you will be able to come up with a receipt to return something should you ever need to.
Voila...my receipt LifeHack. I hope it helps you.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Sowing the Seeds of Cash
There is plenty of agitation in the US these days about "G.M.O.s", Genetically Modified Organisms, a purposely-broad term meant to describe all forms of life that are genetically modified. There are a lot of groups looking into various "organisms", but probably the highest-profile activity has to do with food stock plants, largely corn and different types of grains and cereal crops. Corporations being led by giants such as Monsanto have been hard at work for years to try to produce new versions of our most common dietary crops to make them more disease-resistant, drought-resistant, and even more pesticide-resistant, so that farmers, which these days mostly means agri-business corporate giants, can increase their profits by increasing their yields.
One of my favorite ironic combinations is companies that make weed-killing herbicides such as the well-known product "RoundUp" people use in their gardens, are working to make plants that are "RoundUp resistant", so growers can buy and pour more of these poisons on their crops to kill invading weeds while leaving genetically-modified (Monsanto) crops thriving. On a certain level it sounds good, but if you think about it, the idea of one company making both a poison and its antidote can't help but inspire some really scary horror sci-fi scenarios, possibly leading to situations where they spray huge amounts of this toxin that kills every plant it hits except if it is one that you bought from them. What kind of terrifying power does that put in the hands of one profit-oriented corporation?
Whatever it is, it is not as terrifying as what Monsanto and others are doing with the seeds that grow the grains and cereals and corn that we feed to our livestock to eat, or simply grow plants that are made into food. Under the guise of trying to engineer heartier plants that increase food supplies for a hungry world, they are also making it so the resulting plants cannot produce their own seed--and then, they PATENT them.
Back from the beginning of agriculture thousands of years ago, farmers would grow some plants for consumption and also some for seed, so that when the next season came around, they would have new seeds to plant, to keep the cycle going. It's a pretty successful strategy when you consider that it really accounts for the basic survival of the human species.
It is a very important and basic issue.
But Monsanto is working with government support to create a new world order of agriculture, wherein their seeds proliferate, producing crops that farmers harvest, and also require that farmers come back to Monsanto the very next year to buy more seed. It's a pretty powerful business model which is great if you're Monsanto, but not as great if you just like to eat.
The are designing these seeds to proliferate, force other species out, or cross-pollinate with them, so that even if a farmer very carefully works to maintain his own crops based on, dare I say it, OPEN SOURCE SEEDS, often his crops will be infiltrated by Monsanto crops, and then Monsanto can obtain that farmer's seeds or plants, put them through genetic analysis, and be able to PROVE that the seed contains some of Monsanto's seed genes, and declare, "You stole our property!", demanding that the farmer cease production and even pay reparation to Monsanto!
Every bowl of cereal you have for breakfast, every processed food that contains corn sugar, oil, or starch, or any part of corn, rice, you name it, and Monsanto is working to seize legal ownership of it.
I have to admit that one of the first things that pops into my mind is, "gee, I sure wish I'D thought of that!" but then I think, "Wait a minute...should one company really be legally permitted to own the fundamental rights to the food we as a species rely on for survival? So that the day will come when either we pay Monsanto a cut, OR WE DON'T EAT?
People held massive protests at a Monsanto board meeting in the last few days to demand that the law not ban, but simply require G.M. foods to disclose that fact on the label, so we as consumers can make an informed choice as to the kind of food we put in our own bodies. But Monsanto viciously--and successfully, because thanks to Republicans money now wins virtually EVERY fight, and they have WAY more money than any opposition--fights to avoid simply having to identify the "miracle foods" that they are creating for our "own good".
If it's so good, and G.M. Foods are so healthy, surely people would seek out foods with labels that proclaim "G.M.O.", why don't they even want us to be able to tell by reading the label? Are these people capable of doing ANYTHING that does not seem sinister in some way?
That's another area of enough concern to cause people to stage protests and get arrested to fight for. But meanwhile, you have to wonder what the world will be like when no own can grow any kind of edible plant, including not just grains but vegetables and fruits, without having to buy the seeds from just one company, Monsanto. Since they are working to create a monopoly on viable seed, they will also be able to set the price, because if you don't buy from them, there's nobody else to buy from. Remember? They sprayed thousands of acres of farmland with RoundUp which killed all plants except the ones grown from their own seed, so if you want food, Monsanto is the only place to get it. And none of those plants produce seed, so you have to buy seed from Monsanto.
Remember, no matter how complex it seems, they are mostly just producing sterile seed, and patenting it. It's not magic in this era of advanced genetics. They then pursue strategies to force the competition out of business, simple if you have the money and political clout they do.
Admittedly, I can't really even figure out how Monsanto itself will generate such huge amounts of "sterile" seed, but just because I can't understand it doesn't mean it isn't happening. And if Monsanto succeeds in "cornering the market" in some basic species of plants, what happens if THEY fail, and cannot produce enough seed?
"But...this cannot BE happening! First of all, it's OBSCENE. Second...don't we have anti-trust laws in this country? Haven't we already fought this fight and determined that monopolies are bad for society and thus cannot legally be permitted to exist?"
That's what I've always thought.
One of my favorite ironic combinations is companies that make weed-killing herbicides such as the well-known product "RoundUp" people use in their gardens, are working to make plants that are "RoundUp resistant", so growers can buy and pour more of these poisons on their crops to kill invading weeds while leaving genetically-modified (Monsanto) crops thriving. On a certain level it sounds good, but if you think about it, the idea of one company making both a poison and its antidote can't help but inspire some really scary horror sci-fi scenarios, possibly leading to situations where they spray huge amounts of this toxin that kills every plant it hits except if it is one that you bought from them. What kind of terrifying power does that put in the hands of one profit-oriented corporation?
Whatever it is, it is not as terrifying as what Monsanto and others are doing with the seeds that grow the grains and cereals and corn that we feed to our livestock to eat, or simply grow plants that are made into food. Under the guise of trying to engineer heartier plants that increase food supplies for a hungry world, they are also making it so the resulting plants cannot produce their own seed--and then, they PATENT them.
Back from the beginning of agriculture thousands of years ago, farmers would grow some plants for consumption and also some for seed, so that when the next season came around, they would have new seeds to plant, to keep the cycle going. It's a pretty successful strategy when you consider that it really accounts for the basic survival of the human species.
It is a very important and basic issue.
But Monsanto is working with government support to create a new world order of agriculture, wherein their seeds proliferate, producing crops that farmers harvest, and also require that farmers come back to Monsanto the very next year to buy more seed. It's a pretty powerful business model which is great if you're Monsanto, but not as great if you just like to eat.
The are designing these seeds to proliferate, force other species out, or cross-pollinate with them, so that even if a farmer very carefully works to maintain his own crops based on, dare I say it, OPEN SOURCE SEEDS, often his crops will be infiltrated by Monsanto crops, and then Monsanto can obtain that farmer's seeds or plants, put them through genetic analysis, and be able to PROVE that the seed contains some of Monsanto's seed genes, and declare, "You stole our property!", demanding that the farmer cease production and even pay reparation to Monsanto!
Every bowl of cereal you have for breakfast, every processed food that contains corn sugar, oil, or starch, or any part of corn, rice, you name it, and Monsanto is working to seize legal ownership of it.
I have to admit that one of the first things that pops into my mind is, "gee, I sure wish I'D thought of that!" but then I think, "Wait a minute...should one company really be legally permitted to own the fundamental rights to the food we as a species rely on for survival? So that the day will come when either we pay Monsanto a cut, OR WE DON'T EAT?
People held massive protests at a Monsanto board meeting in the last few days to demand that the law not ban, but simply require G.M. foods to disclose that fact on the label, so we as consumers can make an informed choice as to the kind of food we put in our own bodies. But Monsanto viciously--and successfully, because thanks to Republicans money now wins virtually EVERY fight, and they have WAY more money than any opposition--fights to avoid simply having to identify the "miracle foods" that they are creating for our "own good".
If it's so good, and G.M. Foods are so healthy, surely people would seek out foods with labels that proclaim "G.M.O.", why don't they even want us to be able to tell by reading the label? Are these people capable of doing ANYTHING that does not seem sinister in some way?
That's another area of enough concern to cause people to stage protests and get arrested to fight for. But meanwhile, you have to wonder what the world will be like when no own can grow any kind of edible plant, including not just grains but vegetables and fruits, without having to buy the seeds from just one company, Monsanto. Since they are working to create a monopoly on viable seed, they will also be able to set the price, because if you don't buy from them, there's nobody else to buy from. Remember? They sprayed thousands of acres of farmland with RoundUp which killed all plants except the ones grown from their own seed, so if you want food, Monsanto is the only place to get it. And none of those plants produce seed, so you have to buy seed from Monsanto.
Remember, no matter how complex it seems, they are mostly just producing sterile seed, and patenting it. It's not magic in this era of advanced genetics. They then pursue strategies to force the competition out of business, simple if you have the money and political clout they do.
Admittedly, I can't really even figure out how Monsanto itself will generate such huge amounts of "sterile" seed, but just because I can't understand it doesn't mean it isn't happening. And if Monsanto succeeds in "cornering the market" in some basic species of plants, what happens if THEY fail, and cannot produce enough seed?
"But...this cannot BE happening! First of all, it's OBSCENE. Second...don't we have anti-trust laws in this country? Haven't we already fought this fight and determined that monopolies are bad for society and thus cannot legally be permitted to exist?"
That's what I've always thought.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
SOTU Morrow Comes
Watching President Obama give this year's "State of the Union" address on my trusty iPad, my first thought was, "Finally, the President has caught up with corporations everywhere in using PowerPoint to give presentations." As a graphic designer and a web UX designer I feel I have to thank the president and his team for developing a tasteful, highly effective set of visuals that avoided self-serving "design tricks" like gratuitous animation to provide a genuine complement to the President's speech. I held my breath as the first few slides went by, waiting for a dreaded animation "build" or some other distracting, corny design gimmick, but it never came.
I see a lot of design as does everyone now in this age of information and communication, and I have to say something I don't often feel: I wish I had gotten a chance to be on that design team, not for the usual reason of correcting the impulse to hideous excess that plagues so much design, but so I could take part credit for the presentation. Excellent work, people.
I'm a designer, there is no way I could let that pass without commenting on it. But onto more substantive aspects of the address.
I find that I almost always like what President Obama says, and I like a lot of what he does. In my mind, if nothing else, if everything else is discarded, this is a man who made access to health coverage for people even with pre-existing conditions, a FACT of American life, giving all of us a position from which we will never have to retreat.
"We got it now, suckers, and we ain't ever gonna give it up!" Just that single, tiny concept is to me a gigantic jump ahead in the civility of this country and hopefully, in time, the world. Sure, other countries had it first, but, no offense, but it's a totally different thing to say, "They have it in Canada", than to say, "They have it in the United States of America", which is, for better or worse, the global icon for power and democracy. Even if we play catch up, when we do it makes it just that much easier for others to follow.
Because, as an American I believe that Obama's basic moral statement resonates with mine, that ALL people are important, and we ultimately have a stake in the life of every living person. During ups and downs, this has remained the place where people dream to be, and that they dream to emulate. Every good thing we do in America is a beckoning to people everywhere: "Come on, you guys, be like us!" Not in the sense of wiping out their own identity, but in the sense of defining what every human being has a right to have just by being born.
Obama is unquestionably a great man, and I believe that he will be remembered as one of the greatest American presidents. But there are still questions that gnaw at me. He addresses the important principle of rejecting the idea that we can only maintain peace by maintaining a constant war footing. And he has put his money where his mouth is by aggressively opposing any that would stop him, and bringing an official end to the horrendous, senseless, and very expensive military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But I still have to ask, "What about JSOC, and what about SOCOM, Mr. President?"
("What about the WHAT and the WHAT now???" I hear people ask.)
JSOC and SOCOM are two expressions that I know about that describe our alarming increase in "Special and Covert" operations around the world. These are NOT the military forces the President means when he is talking about bringing our troops home, they are Spec Ops troops like Army Rangers, Green Berets, coupled with contracted private military operatives that are estimated to now have a presence in as many as 130 of the world's 200 or so countries, a number that has apparently DOUBLED on Obama's watch.
Sure, we're bringing the average soldiers home, but meanwhile we are expanding our covert military presence to MOST of the countries in the world, but with names that nobody knows, and that therefore nobody can really question. And we SHOULD be able to question, if only to say, "Hey Obama, who ARE these people and what are they DOING?"
We should be able to ask that question not simply on moral grounds but on economic grounds because these "covert" and contractor military operatives cost our country by some estimates upwards of a TRILLION DOLLARS per year.
If no one else will, I want to stand up and say, "Excuse me...I WANT MY TRILLION DOLLARS BACK PLEASE." STOP talking about how Americans have to tighten their belts and let go of critical government services when a secret TRILLION dollars is evaporating every year from our economy to suit goals and purposes that nobody has even bothered to acknowledge, let alone justify.
The Visible Soldiers are coming home! But the secret soldiers are going out--and we pay for them. They had better be doing a lot of important stuff we can't do without for that much money, for asking people at home to do without food and shelter.
And, as he should, the President gave an implied thumbs-up to the next Nobel Peace Prize winner, a man who sacrificed everything to give us critical information that Obama and the government was doing everything they could to hide from us, Edward Snowden, by mentioning that we need to respect our values and the right to privacy of people all around the world.
But Snowden is still a criminal on the run, and Julian Assange is still under house arrest at an embassy in London, at the behest of our president. Obama has announced some fairly vague and unsatisfying new "controls" on the ever expanding, enormous Surveillance State of America. Obama says not that the NSA has to stop collecting our personal communications, but that the data should be handed off to someone else for "protection" from abuse by our own agents. But...who? What organization can be imagined that can step in and take this data, and somehow mysteriously gain the power to withhold it from secret entities within the US government?
What about the fact that NO ONE can show that ANY of this information has prevented or even inconvenienced a SINGLE TERRORIST ACTION against the US? Shouldn't this mean that the NSA should simply stop this very questionable activity and thereby release the BILLIONS it costs to run the NSA and similar agencies BACK into our economy?
As he is up there eloquently expounding on our highest ideals, they are still STEALING our private data--and forcing us to pay billions for the "privilege".
Our President says--and does--some wonderful things, for the people of this country, and of the world. But these frightening issues still have a cozy hiding place in the unexplored depths of his administration, and of OUR government.
President Obama, Thanks for all you have given us, but it's not enough. We want more.
I see a lot of design as does everyone now in this age of information and communication, and I have to say something I don't often feel: I wish I had gotten a chance to be on that design team, not for the usual reason of correcting the impulse to hideous excess that plagues so much design, but so I could take part credit for the presentation. Excellent work, people.
I'm a designer, there is no way I could let that pass without commenting on it. But onto more substantive aspects of the address.
I find that I almost always like what President Obama says, and I like a lot of what he does. In my mind, if nothing else, if everything else is discarded, this is a man who made access to health coverage for people even with pre-existing conditions, a FACT of American life, giving all of us a position from which we will never have to retreat.
"We got it now, suckers, and we ain't ever gonna give it up!" Just that single, tiny concept is to me a gigantic jump ahead in the civility of this country and hopefully, in time, the world. Sure, other countries had it first, but, no offense, but it's a totally different thing to say, "They have it in Canada", than to say, "They have it in the United States of America", which is, for better or worse, the global icon for power and democracy. Even if we play catch up, when we do it makes it just that much easier for others to follow.
Because, as an American I believe that Obama's basic moral statement resonates with mine, that ALL people are important, and we ultimately have a stake in the life of every living person. During ups and downs, this has remained the place where people dream to be, and that they dream to emulate. Every good thing we do in America is a beckoning to people everywhere: "Come on, you guys, be like us!" Not in the sense of wiping out their own identity, but in the sense of defining what every human being has a right to have just by being born.
Obama is unquestionably a great man, and I believe that he will be remembered as one of the greatest American presidents. But there are still questions that gnaw at me. He addresses the important principle of rejecting the idea that we can only maintain peace by maintaining a constant war footing. And he has put his money where his mouth is by aggressively opposing any that would stop him, and bringing an official end to the horrendous, senseless, and very expensive military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But I still have to ask, "What about JSOC, and what about SOCOM, Mr. President?"
("What about the WHAT and the WHAT now???" I hear people ask.)
JSOC and SOCOM are two expressions that I know about that describe our alarming increase in "Special and Covert" operations around the world. These are NOT the military forces the President means when he is talking about bringing our troops home, they are Spec Ops troops like Army Rangers, Green Berets, coupled with contracted private military operatives that are estimated to now have a presence in as many as 130 of the world's 200 or so countries, a number that has apparently DOUBLED on Obama's watch.
Sure, we're bringing the average soldiers home, but meanwhile we are expanding our covert military presence to MOST of the countries in the world, but with names that nobody knows, and that therefore nobody can really question. And we SHOULD be able to question, if only to say, "Hey Obama, who ARE these people and what are they DOING?"
We should be able to ask that question not simply on moral grounds but on economic grounds because these "covert" and contractor military operatives cost our country by some estimates upwards of a TRILLION DOLLARS per year.
If no one else will, I want to stand up and say, "Excuse me...I WANT MY TRILLION DOLLARS BACK PLEASE." STOP talking about how Americans have to tighten their belts and let go of critical government services when a secret TRILLION dollars is evaporating every year from our economy to suit goals and purposes that nobody has even bothered to acknowledge, let alone justify.
The Visible Soldiers are coming home! But the secret soldiers are going out--and we pay for them. They had better be doing a lot of important stuff we can't do without for that much money, for asking people at home to do without food and shelter.
And, as he should, the President gave an implied thumbs-up to the next Nobel Peace Prize winner, a man who sacrificed everything to give us critical information that Obama and the government was doing everything they could to hide from us, Edward Snowden, by mentioning that we need to respect our values and the right to privacy of people all around the world.
But Snowden is still a criminal on the run, and Julian Assange is still under house arrest at an embassy in London, at the behest of our president. Obama has announced some fairly vague and unsatisfying new "controls" on the ever expanding, enormous Surveillance State of America. Obama says not that the NSA has to stop collecting our personal communications, but that the data should be handed off to someone else for "protection" from abuse by our own agents. But...who? What organization can be imagined that can step in and take this data, and somehow mysteriously gain the power to withhold it from secret entities within the US government?
What about the fact that NO ONE can show that ANY of this information has prevented or even inconvenienced a SINGLE TERRORIST ACTION against the US? Shouldn't this mean that the NSA should simply stop this very questionable activity and thereby release the BILLIONS it costs to run the NSA and similar agencies BACK into our economy?
As he is up there eloquently expounding on our highest ideals, they are still STEALING our private data--and forcing us to pay billions for the "privilege".
Our President says--and does--some wonderful things, for the people of this country, and of the world. But these frightening issues still have a cozy hiding place in the unexplored depths of his administration, and of OUR government.
President Obama, Thanks for all you have given us, but it's not enough. We want more.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Oh (S)NO(WDEN)!
Have you been hearing the "back channel" murmurings for the repatriation of Edward Snowden? In typical US political rhetorical style, Obama softens his hard line, but still talks tough, while he instructs his proxies like Holder to go out and say things that seem conciliatory, but nowhere actually rule out the possibility of clemency or immunity?
Snowden, who has shown himself to be in no way a bullshitter, sensing what's going on, issues a statement that says, "me coming home would be the ideal resolution, but it's never going to happen without clemency. The laws that they are invoking have no provision for a 'public good' defense. With the ineffective law we have in place I could have been charged with a felony if I had only released this information to Congress."
I've thought for a long time that the US has been stupid to not do absolutely anything necessary to get this guy home again--including clemency and maybe some jet skiis or something. But now my fear is that this is EXACTLY what's going to happen.
And it will have to include iron-clad legal promises rendering Snowden immune from prosecution from almost ANY crime, otherwise, they'll throw him in Gitmo for "jaywalking in a terrorist fashion".
And I believe that the administration will finally wise up enough to make this possible. And while it might be nice for Ed to be home for Xmas, it will complete shit for everyone else without a political dog in the fight. Because new stuff keeps coming out. Just today I read that he released info indicating that the NSA is working on compromising smartphone apps.
One deal he is NEVER going to get is to come home and continue to be able to bring these things to light. So the minute he makes a deal, the rest of the secrets he controls, including ones that might be very important for us to know, will be locked away forever. That will be a condition for any deal, Holder has said as much, and he even said, "and I am talking about getting more than Snowden's word for it."
It's anybody's guess what that might be, or if such a thing is even possible at this point, because Snowden is surely smart enough to have "fail safe" options set up to many degrees of redundancy, otherwise, he'd be dead already.
I'm sorry, Edward. We appreciate all you've done, but you, of all people, can never come home again.
Snowden, who has shown himself to be in no way a bullshitter, sensing what's going on, issues a statement that says, "me coming home would be the ideal resolution, but it's never going to happen without clemency. The laws that they are invoking have no provision for a 'public good' defense. With the ineffective law we have in place I could have been charged with a felony if I had only released this information to Congress."
I've thought for a long time that the US has been stupid to not do absolutely anything necessary to get this guy home again--including clemency and maybe some jet skiis or something. But now my fear is that this is EXACTLY what's going to happen.
And it will have to include iron-clad legal promises rendering Snowden immune from prosecution from almost ANY crime, otherwise, they'll throw him in Gitmo for "jaywalking in a terrorist fashion".
And I believe that the administration will finally wise up enough to make this possible. And while it might be nice for Ed to be home for Xmas, it will complete shit for everyone else without a political dog in the fight. Because new stuff keeps coming out. Just today I read that he released info indicating that the NSA is working on compromising smartphone apps.
One deal he is NEVER going to get is to come home and continue to be able to bring these things to light. So the minute he makes a deal, the rest of the secrets he controls, including ones that might be very important for us to know, will be locked away forever. That will be a condition for any deal, Holder has said as much, and he even said, "and I am talking about getting more than Snowden's word for it."
It's anybody's guess what that might be, or if such a thing is even possible at this point, because Snowden is surely smart enough to have "fail safe" options set up to many degrees of redundancy, otherwise, he'd be dead already.
I'm sorry, Edward. We appreciate all you've done, but you, of all people, can never come home again.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Dads
My son,
Just wanted to give you a little perspective on generations.
My dad, your grandpa Tom, whom sadly you never got to meet, could be an emotionally ruthless man, and he hurt me deeply many times. But he also had a very fun, easy-going loving side to him, and I honestly believe that you and him would have been very close. Unfortunately he found himself unable to live long enough to meet you. That's life.
I've had some very harsh reactions to my dad, as have my siblings. But there was also a really good, strong, super loyal side of him that I think was a powerful influence on me.
First of all, whenever we met, even after I was grown up and on my own, he would always hug me, and give me a kiss on the cheek. Other dads around me would offer their grown sons a hug, but it was much rarer to get a kiss. That's not manly in our culture and we want our boys to grow up to be strong MEN!
Of course, you have a similar experience with me. Why WOULDN'T I kiss you, I love you, and want to do anything I can to make sure you know it. Time goes by, people get uncertain, when I see you you will always get a reminder in the form of a sloppy smooch on the neck.
But that wasn't the full extent of it with my dad, and neither is it with me, and I think it's because of his example.
For instance, I remember when I was a young man, living on my own, I was driving on a brutally cold Chicago night on Lake Shore Drive (the "LSD" as we called it), and I fucking ran out of gas, the kind of auto breakdown that is only due to your own stupidity.
I had to go find a phone (I know, right? FIND a phone!), and I instantly did just one thing: call my dad. "Hey dad..", "Hi pal, what's up?" "Well, I feel like an asshole, but I've run out of gas on the LSD." "OK, where are you?" And I told him. And then he said, without any fuss or tension. "OK, sit tight. I'll be right there."
And he got his aging ass up out his his warm, comfy house, put on shoes and a coat, got in his car, drove to a gas station. (Remember, it is so fucking cold you think your fingers might just freeze solid and crumble off.) He gets a can of gas, and as soon as he could do it, he was pulling up behind my car.
Thinking about it now practically makes me want to cry.
"Dad, thanks so much man, I'm really sorry to put you through this."
"Aww...shit happens, pal. If you need something, that's what I'm here for."
I think he might have even offered me cash to get my tank filled up.
He made sure my car started and I was all good and said, "OK pal. See ya later. But go get some gas, huh?" And he was off.
My dad would have crawled through hell on his belly for any one of us at any time. That sense of iron loyalty was baked deeply into the White bloodline I suspect long before my dad, even before my grandfather. And I knew his dad, and he was the exact same way.
Consciously or not, this has always been the kind of behavior I've meant to emulate when it came time for me to step into the role of "father". Maybe in some sense, it's the very definition of it.
Just wanted to give you a little perspective on generations.
My dad, your grandpa Tom, whom sadly you never got to meet, could be an emotionally ruthless man, and he hurt me deeply many times. But he also had a very fun, easy-going loving side to him, and I honestly believe that you and him would have been very close. Unfortunately he found himself unable to live long enough to meet you. That's life.
I've had some very harsh reactions to my dad, as have my siblings. But there was also a really good, strong, super loyal side of him that I think was a powerful influence on me.
First of all, whenever we met, even after I was grown up and on my own, he would always hug me, and give me a kiss on the cheek. Other dads around me would offer their grown sons a hug, but it was much rarer to get a kiss. That's not manly in our culture and we want our boys to grow up to be strong MEN!
Of course, you have a similar experience with me. Why WOULDN'T I kiss you, I love you, and want to do anything I can to make sure you know it. Time goes by, people get uncertain, when I see you you will always get a reminder in the form of a sloppy smooch on the neck.
But that wasn't the full extent of it with my dad, and neither is it with me, and I think it's because of his example.
For instance, I remember when I was a young man, living on my own, I was driving on a brutally cold Chicago night on Lake Shore Drive (the "LSD" as we called it), and I fucking ran out of gas, the kind of auto breakdown that is only due to your own stupidity.
I had to go find a phone (I know, right? FIND a phone!), and I instantly did just one thing: call my dad. "Hey dad..", "Hi pal, what's up?" "Well, I feel like an asshole, but I've run out of gas on the LSD." "OK, where are you?" And I told him. And then he said, without any fuss or tension. "OK, sit tight. I'll be right there."
And he got his aging ass up out his his warm, comfy house, put on shoes and a coat, got in his car, drove to a gas station. (Remember, it is so fucking cold you think your fingers might just freeze solid and crumble off.) He gets a can of gas, and as soon as he could do it, he was pulling up behind my car.
Thinking about it now practically makes me want to cry.
"Dad, thanks so much man, I'm really sorry to put you through this."
"Aww...shit happens, pal. If you need something, that's what I'm here for."
I think he might have even offered me cash to get my tank filled up.
He made sure my car started and I was all good and said, "OK pal. See ya later. But go get some gas, huh?" And he was off.
My dad would have crawled through hell on his belly for any one of us at any time. That sense of iron loyalty was baked deeply into the White bloodline I suspect long before my dad, even before my grandfather. And I knew his dad, and he was the exact same way.
Consciously or not, this has always been the kind of behavior I've meant to emulate when it came time for me to step into the role of "father". Maybe in some sense, it's the very definition of it.
Random Comments on Streaming Media
I haven't been on hbogo for awhile because truth be told they have a certain amount of content and once you go through that, you're done, for awhile anyway. Besides Bill Maher.
They do change out movies, and sometimes bring back shows, but there's no guarantee they will be good. And they sometimes produce new movies. Lately they've produced some pretty mediocre stuff, one about Liberace, and another goofy comedy starring Larry David doing Larry David schtick.
If nothing else they always have "The Sopranos", a series I recommend that everyone watch at least three times all seven seasons. It's the only show I've ever watched that, on the third watching, I still kept having the feeling that I was seeing episodes I hadn't seen before. It's that intense.
But I loaded it up because I wanted to skip through "Cloud Atlas" again, and see some of the more amazing scenes, like "New Seoul", and others that are just outrageous.
But it's gone now. I guess the license they had was limited.
If you still want to see it--and it is truly visually unique, the only independent movie ever made with a budget of $100,000,000--you can purchase it on Amazon for $9.99 in HD, including a bunch of special features. (You can also get it in SD, and without the features, but strangely it still costs the same, so if you do you might as well get HD plus features. They didn't have the features on hbogo, so that at least would be something, maybe more interesting than the movie in some ways.)
(If you watch it using an app, you must purchase content through the web site, and then it will show up in your app. Otherwise, they have to pay Apple a cut, and that violates licensing agreements. People have been badgering Apple to change their "in-app purchase" rules to accommodate this, but they won't, so far. Thus they put you through this awkward process. If you don't buy things on the site, all you can see in the Amazon app is "Prime" stuff--if you pay for Prime. It is undeniably a weird business model: pay a yearly fee for "free" overnight delivery PLUS streaming video content..it's like paying for a massage and getting a free wheel of Jarlsberg cheese or something. Bizarre.)
It's a mostly confusing mash of different stories in different timelines with characters played by the same actors, which can be unfortunate because one of them is Tom Hanks, and to me he just totally sucks out loud in this, which is bad bc he plays like five different roles. But the visuals in almost every scene are just so lush and detailed it nearly beggars the imagination. It's worth seeing if for nothing else than the pure spectacle of it. If I hadn't seen it, I'd pay for it.
They do change out movies, and sometimes bring back shows, but there's no guarantee they will be good. And they sometimes produce new movies. Lately they've produced some pretty mediocre stuff, one about Liberace, and another goofy comedy starring Larry David doing Larry David schtick.
If nothing else they always have "The Sopranos", a series I recommend that everyone watch at least three times all seven seasons. It's the only show I've ever watched that, on the third watching, I still kept having the feeling that I was seeing episodes I hadn't seen before. It's that intense.
But I loaded it up because I wanted to skip through "Cloud Atlas" again, and see some of the more amazing scenes, like "New Seoul", and others that are just outrageous.
But it's gone now. I guess the license they had was limited.
If you still want to see it--and it is truly visually unique, the only independent movie ever made with a budget of $100,000,000--you can purchase it on Amazon for $9.99 in HD, including a bunch of special features. (You can also get it in SD, and without the features, but strangely it still costs the same, so if you do you might as well get HD plus features. They didn't have the features on hbogo, so that at least would be something, maybe more interesting than the movie in some ways.)
(If you watch it using an app, you must purchase content through the web site, and then it will show up in your app. Otherwise, they have to pay Apple a cut, and that violates licensing agreements. People have been badgering Apple to change their "in-app purchase" rules to accommodate this, but they won't, so far. Thus they put you through this awkward process. If you don't buy things on the site, all you can see in the Amazon app is "Prime" stuff--if you pay for Prime. It is undeniably a weird business model: pay a yearly fee for "free" overnight delivery PLUS streaming video content..it's like paying for a massage and getting a free wheel of Jarlsberg cheese or something. Bizarre.)
It's a mostly confusing mash of different stories in different timelines with characters played by the same actors, which can be unfortunate because one of them is Tom Hanks, and to me he just totally sucks out loud in this, which is bad bc he plays like five different roles. But the visuals in almost every scene are just so lush and detailed it nearly beggars the imagination. It's worth seeing if for nothing else than the pure spectacle of it. If I hadn't seen it, I'd pay for it.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Young Person, Here's What You Should Do
The American comic Andy Richter has been around the comedy biz, and even achieved a certain amount of success, with several sitcoms that, although they failed, did broadcast on major networks, with him as the principle star and creative force.
One of his best ones, "Andy Richter Runs the Universe", unfortunately didn't get the audience it needed to survive, which was a shame, because it was genuinely amusing.
That show never got the recognition it deserved, and even though Andy had many more opportunities, including some other sitcoms ("Andy Barker, P.I.", with Andy as an insurance agent who secretly dabbled in solving cases, actually DID EXIST, for a short time), he ultimately abandoned all his fans in the most egregious way conceivable.
Andy, even after walking out of the smoke of several failed sitcoms, actually still had some pull in the industry, and people with power were still interested in getting him to do things, including movies and more TV shows. But Andy suddenly and inexplicably decided to take an unexpected turn AWAY from the possibility of fame, glitz and glamour, and turn (selfishly) TOWARD his own happiness instead.
Andy got his start as a marginal stand-up when he met a truly gawky goofus named Conan O'Brien. O'Brien, puzzlingly destined for greatness based on the sheer absurdity that anyone like him could EVER achieve greatness, was into comedy and show biz and found out that they were into him too, but even so, Conan found that the idea of walking out onstage completely TERRIFIED him.
This is not a good trait for someone interested in making a career in show biz. But Fate provided Conan with an unexpected solution in the person of Andy Richter.
When Conan got his first late night show, he brought Andy on board as side-kick. The reason was that Conan discovered that talking to Andy was truly the only effective way he could find to dispel his fear, and allow him to meet contract obligations which required him to walk onstage and be funny in front of an auditorium full of people, without completely losing his shit.
Yes, Andy got his first big boost by being Conan O'Brien's security blanket. Conan (and I call him that because typing his last name is such a bitch) had a certain comic genius, but without Andy, few would ever have seen it. Fans would see Andy just on-stage in a little booth with a mic making intros and wise-cracks, and setting up jokes for Conan, but what people didn't see was that BEFORE the show ever went on, Andy was sitting in a dressing room with Conan, shooting the shit, and just generally making Conan feel OK about what he had to do.
From there, Andy started getting recognized as an appealing chubby guy with a quirky sense of humor all his own. But after several years of plying it in Hollywood, Conan, who had lost his show, got a new one on TBS. He turned to the now-much more famous and powerful Andy and begged him to put all that aside, forgo any further fantasies about becoming the next beloved "Seinfeld", possibilities that were within Andy's grasp, and come back to be his side-kick, based purely on the fact that no one else could have the desired effect on Conan.
Andy found himself at a serious crossroads--serious enough to be serious, but apparently not really serious enough to be taken seriously, because Andy thought, and then just said, "OK, sounds good."
And with that, he completely turned his back on finding the vehicle that would make him a big name star in his own right, and he did it completely deliberately.
I go through explaining all this because I think there's a lesson there that quite possibly transcends all the other advice I've been giving you, and all the nervous and worried thoughts that have been racing through your head lately. I think Andy shows us the way through a confusing, disturbing world full of threatening possibilities and scary choices. His advice?
"Fuck it all, and have fun."
Maybe you went to college, studied hard, and got a degree, and maybe you have been the "smart kid" carrying the burden of big expectations for much of your young life.
But in the end, the truth of the matter is the idea that you have to choose correctly and be something important is all complete bullshit. Because not only are you going to leave this earth, but so is every person that might have heard of you, whether you did great or did nothing. Yes, there are some people like Isaac Newton whose names will be remembered forever, and he most likely knew that would happen. But it in fact DOESN'T matter to him that it's true. Like everyone, he's gone.
There are those who might like to ding my argument by saying, "Sure, that may seem so to an atheist like you, but in fact, even you don't really know if there really IS a life after this one, where we might be able to look down upon the lives we left and judge them."
To them I say, "There is never any shortage of short-sighted smart-asses who say shit like that, but to them I'd say, 'OK, lets say when we leave this life we go into ANOTHER plane of existence...do you really think that, from that perspective, where we can probably not only see our own lives but those of others, because nothing matters without others, won't we inevitably see a lot of people just barely holding on, or even suffering intensely, and realize that, no matter WHAT happened in our lives, they were actually alright?'"
Andy could have kept in there struggling to hit it, but he clearly decided that overall it didn't really matter, and he got a chance to hang out with friends, do an easy, fun job, make good money, go home, and beat off like everyone else. Andy said, "Fuck the worry and struggle, at best, what can I hope to get, fame? Who fucking cares?"
He decided, screw it. This looks like fun. That's enough for me.
As I said in an earlier email, you are among the first humans ever to be in their 20s and KNOW how much important stuff happens to the brain during that period. Which means that before this, NO ONE knew, and some people did alright, and others didn't. Knowing it doesn't really make a difference, because in the end, so much is based on pure luck.
Consider this: right now, Scarlett Johannsen might be sitting on the toilet, feeling constipated, and straining like mad to take a shit. She's not thinking, "I am a glamorous queen, worship me", she is thinking, "UNNNNNNNNGGGG....aaaahhh...", splash. "Thank god, I have had to take that shit for like three days, and I would have given up every last one of my Porsches just for that. God..." She thinks, wiping her ass, "that feels MUCH better."
So what I'm trying to say is, "FOR-FUCKING-GET IT!" If you get an idea for a movie, make it if you feel like it. If you want to take another class because it seems like fun, do it. If you want to get married, great. The truth is that you are lucky to be smart enough to pursue whatever you feel like, and remember, you can change that at any time. I recently counted, and literally speaking, I am now on my SIXTH career. I'm not making money, but I am the audio engineer for a live radio show--who saw that coming?
Spend all your time having whatever fun you can think of, and not worrying about absolutely anything. One maxim I made up long ago is one I still believe in, but often forget:
"There is no such thing as the 'wrong' way to live your life." You literally cannot fail! No matter what you do! Because the fact is, whatever happens, you have lived.
And that is all anybody ever does.
One of his best ones, "Andy Richter Runs the Universe", unfortunately didn't get the audience it needed to survive, which was a shame, because it was genuinely amusing.
That show never got the recognition it deserved, and even though Andy had many more opportunities, including some other sitcoms ("Andy Barker, P.I.", with Andy as an insurance agent who secretly dabbled in solving cases, actually DID EXIST, for a short time), he ultimately abandoned all his fans in the most egregious way conceivable.
Andy, even after walking out of the smoke of several failed sitcoms, actually still had some pull in the industry, and people with power were still interested in getting him to do things, including movies and more TV shows. But Andy suddenly and inexplicably decided to take an unexpected turn AWAY from the possibility of fame, glitz and glamour, and turn (selfishly) TOWARD his own happiness instead.
Andy got his start as a marginal stand-up when he met a truly gawky goofus named Conan O'Brien. O'Brien, puzzlingly destined for greatness based on the sheer absurdity that anyone like him could EVER achieve greatness, was into comedy and show biz and found out that they were into him too, but even so, Conan found that the idea of walking out onstage completely TERRIFIED him.
This is not a good trait for someone interested in making a career in show biz. But Fate provided Conan with an unexpected solution in the person of Andy Richter.
When Conan got his first late night show, he brought Andy on board as side-kick. The reason was that Conan discovered that talking to Andy was truly the only effective way he could find to dispel his fear, and allow him to meet contract obligations which required him to walk onstage and be funny in front of an auditorium full of people, without completely losing his shit.
Yes, Andy got his first big boost by being Conan O'Brien's security blanket. Conan (and I call him that because typing his last name is such a bitch) had a certain comic genius, but without Andy, few would ever have seen it. Fans would see Andy just on-stage in a little booth with a mic making intros and wise-cracks, and setting up jokes for Conan, but what people didn't see was that BEFORE the show ever went on, Andy was sitting in a dressing room with Conan, shooting the shit, and just generally making Conan feel OK about what he had to do.
From there, Andy started getting recognized as an appealing chubby guy with a quirky sense of humor all his own. But after several years of plying it in Hollywood, Conan, who had lost his show, got a new one on TBS. He turned to the now-much more famous and powerful Andy and begged him to put all that aside, forgo any further fantasies about becoming the next beloved "Seinfeld", possibilities that were within Andy's grasp, and come back to be his side-kick, based purely on the fact that no one else could have the desired effect on Conan.
Andy found himself at a serious crossroads--serious enough to be serious, but apparently not really serious enough to be taken seriously, because Andy thought, and then just said, "OK, sounds good."
And with that, he completely turned his back on finding the vehicle that would make him a big name star in his own right, and he did it completely deliberately.
I go through explaining all this because I think there's a lesson there that quite possibly transcends all the other advice I've been giving you, and all the nervous and worried thoughts that have been racing through your head lately. I think Andy shows us the way through a confusing, disturbing world full of threatening possibilities and scary choices. His advice?
"Fuck it all, and have fun."
Maybe you went to college, studied hard, and got a degree, and maybe you have been the "smart kid" carrying the burden of big expectations for much of your young life.
But in the end, the truth of the matter is the idea that you have to choose correctly and be something important is all complete bullshit. Because not only are you going to leave this earth, but so is every person that might have heard of you, whether you did great or did nothing. Yes, there are some people like Isaac Newton whose names will be remembered forever, and he most likely knew that would happen. But it in fact DOESN'T matter to him that it's true. Like everyone, he's gone.
There are those who might like to ding my argument by saying, "Sure, that may seem so to an atheist like you, but in fact, even you don't really know if there really IS a life after this one, where we might be able to look down upon the lives we left and judge them."
To them I say, "There is never any shortage of short-sighted smart-asses who say shit like that, but to them I'd say, 'OK, lets say when we leave this life we go into ANOTHER plane of existence...do you really think that, from that perspective, where we can probably not only see our own lives but those of others, because nothing matters without others, won't we inevitably see a lot of people just barely holding on, or even suffering intensely, and realize that, no matter WHAT happened in our lives, they were actually alright?'"
Andy could have kept in there struggling to hit it, but he clearly decided that overall it didn't really matter, and he got a chance to hang out with friends, do an easy, fun job, make good money, go home, and beat off like everyone else. Andy said, "Fuck the worry and struggle, at best, what can I hope to get, fame? Who fucking cares?"
He decided, screw it. This looks like fun. That's enough for me.
As I said in an earlier email, you are among the first humans ever to be in their 20s and KNOW how much important stuff happens to the brain during that period. Which means that before this, NO ONE knew, and some people did alright, and others didn't. Knowing it doesn't really make a difference, because in the end, so much is based on pure luck.
Consider this: right now, Scarlett Johannsen might be sitting on the toilet, feeling constipated, and straining like mad to take a shit. She's not thinking, "I am a glamorous queen, worship me", she is thinking, "UNNNNNNNNGGGG....aaaahhh...", splash. "Thank god, I have had to take that shit for like three days, and I would have given up every last one of my Porsches just for that. God..." She thinks, wiping her ass, "that feels MUCH better."
So what I'm trying to say is, "FOR-FUCKING-GET IT!" If you get an idea for a movie, make it if you feel like it. If you want to take another class because it seems like fun, do it. If you want to get married, great. The truth is that you are lucky to be smart enough to pursue whatever you feel like, and remember, you can change that at any time. I recently counted, and literally speaking, I am now on my SIXTH career. I'm not making money, but I am the audio engineer for a live radio show--who saw that coming?
Spend all your time having whatever fun you can think of, and not worrying about absolutely anything. One maxim I made up long ago is one I still believe in, but often forget:
"There is no such thing as the 'wrong' way to live your life." You literally cannot fail! No matter what you do! Because the fact is, whatever happens, you have lived.
And that is all anybody ever does.
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